The Skittish One
by ficwriterjet
Summary: Takes place directly following my story 'The Sociopath'. Set in early season 3. After making a bad decision, Isaac is afraid to go home to Derek thanks to memories of his father. WARNING: Spanking of a teen werewolf by his alpha.


**Author's Note:** This takes place right after my story 'The Sociopath'. Takes place early in season 3.

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own any of these characters, and I'm not making any money from this story.

 **Warning:** Spanking of a teenage werewolf by his alpha.

THE SKITTISH ONE

Peter hung up the phone, tossed it to a terrified Isaac, and said, "I suggest you run for home, Isaac. Derek isn't known for his patience. When he calls back, feel free to tell him where we are. He'll know he can't make it before I'm done."

Isaac tried to resist the urge to flee, but the rising panic that had been building took over when it was time to move his feet. Instead of heading towards Derek's loft, he ran full force in the opposite direction. He heard Scott's voice calling out to him, but that only spurred on his instinct to escape.

He ran straight for the cemetery without thinking about it. He'd often avoided his father's wrath by working extra hours at the cemetery, and over time he'd come to associate this location with a certain amount of safety.

His cell phone vibrated in his pocket, but again, this only made him run faster. He ran past the headstones, and into the woods behind the gardener's shed. He crouched down behind a tree, instantly stilled, and tried to control his breathing.

A few seconds later, his panic started to recede, and the realization of what he'd just done hit him. He took a deep breath, sat down in the dirt with his back against the tree, and lightly banged the back of his head against the trunk. "Idiot," he muttered.

His phone vibrated again, and Isaac pulled it out of his pocket. Derek's name flashed on the screen, and before he could stop himself, he'd reached up and turned the phone completely off. Cringing at his own cowardice, he tossed the phone onto the ground, and shook his head.

Logically he _knew_ Derek was nothing like his father. His alpha wasn't going to lock him in a freezer, or beat him for doing something wrong. But Isaac _had_ done something wrong, and he hadn't lived with Derek long enough to be able to predict what his alpha _would_ do about that.

When Derek had been training Isaac, Erica and Boyd, he'd been tough, both physically and emotionally, on all three of them, but this wasn't training. Would the older man ground him? Would he lecture? Would he look at him with disappointment, shake his head, and ask him to pack his stuff? Would he punch him? Would he yell and snap bones?

Isaac put his head in his hands, and tried to calm down again. The unanswered questions and the fear of the unknown was making his stomach clench, and his heart race. He knew he'd eventually need to go home, and logically he knew the sooner he went home, the less annoyed Derek would be, but at this point, he couldn't force himself to do it.

He could stay in the cemetery for the evening. He'd done it before. It was a warm night, it wasn't raining, and being outside in the open always appealed to Isaac. But he knew from experience that going home the next day could be much worse. The few times he'd spent the night away, he'd spent a good portion of the next day in the freezer with welts on his back.

Now that he was a werewolf, any welts he got would heal, but nothing could heal the unbridled terror he felt when he was locked in a confined space.

"Derek wouldn't do that to me," Isaac said, trying to convince himself that it was true. "You need to go home," he insisted, and glared at his feet as if they were betraying him by not moving. "It won't be that bad. He said he wasn't angry."

Isaac visibly flinched at his own logic. His father had used those very words too many times to count. Not being angry did NOT mean that there wasn't going to be a punishment. It just meant his father would be calm when he took off his belt. Phrases like 'I'm doing this for your own good,' and 'It's my job to teach you a lesson,' went through his head. He couldn't picture Derek saying either of those things, but then again, he'd never deliberately left the loft to antagonize their enemies in the middle of the night before either.

He tried to stop thinking about his father, and concentrate on Derek and what the man might actually do. The image of Derek growling at him and backhanding him once popped into his head. That was probably a much more realistic scenario, and one that Isaac could totally handle. If he knew for certain that Derek would do that, he'd already be on his way to the loft.

He looked at his phone, and sighed. He wouldn't stay out here all night. Derek deserved a little more trust than that. Actually if Isaac was being honest with himself, the man deserved a lot more trust than that. He'd made him a werewolf, he'd taken him in, he'd taught him to control himself during a full moon, and he'd taught him how to fight.

Isaac picked up his phone. His hand hovered over the button to turn it on, but eventually he left it off and stuck it in his pocket. He stood, brushed himself off, and slowly walked back to the cemetery.

He wandered the grounds for a few minutes, looking at the headstones of the graves he'd dug, purposely avoiding his father's gravesite for as long as possible. But eventually he was drawn to it. He stood in front of it, staring at the words 'loving husband and father' for a long time.

The noise of footsteps on the grass startled him out of his revere. He whirled around ready to fight, and saw Scott walking towards him. He relaxed his stance, and felt his face heating up with shame and embarrassment. The way he'd run from Derek and everyone else didn't exactly inspire confidence.

"Hey, Isaac," Scott said softly, as if he were talking to one of the injured puppies at work.

Isaac scowled at the tone, stuck his hands in his pockets, glared at the ground, and muttered, "Hey."

Scott walked over to stand right next to Isaac, matched his stance, and stared at the headstone.

"What happened with Peter?" Isaac asked, wanting to avoid the fact that Scott had clearly been out looking for him, probably on Derek's behalf. "Did he call everyone's parents?"

Scott shrugged. "Not exactly. He called the Sheriff. Stiles is grounded for a month. He called Deucalion." Scott shook his head. "He sounds worse than your D…. well… worse than your situation used to be. I'm pretty sure he's going to beat them up when they get home."

Isaac's eyes opened wide at that information. He wasn't sure how he felt about it. He hated the twins, but… no one deserved that.

Scott continued, "He didn't call my mom though."

"He didn't?"

Scott shook his head. "He took me to his apartment and… talked to me himself. Convinced me that I need to consult Derek before I do anything stupid like I did tonight."

Isaac raised an eyebrow when he heard Scott's heart jump when he said the word 'talked'. He glanced sidewise at his friend. "Talked?"

Scott blushed, and looked away. "I don't want to talk about it."

Getting worried and a little angry, Isaac said, "Did Peter hit you?"

"I said I don't want to talk about it!"

Isaac's hurt expression made Scott wish he hadn't yelled. He sighed, shook his head, and changed the subject. "Derek asked me to come find you. You need to go home."

Isaac nodded at the ground and said, "Yeah, I know. I was going to… eventually."

"Why'd you run?" Scott asked.

Isaac shook his head, not wanting to talk about his illogical fears.

"Derek hasn't given you any reason to… be afraid of him has he? I mean, I know Stiles _says_ Derek scares him, but saying stuff like that out loud is just his way of dealing with everything in his head. He's not really afraid of him."

"No," Isaac said with certainty. "Derek's never given me any reason to be afraid of him. If anything, he's given me every reason to trust him."

"So why run?"

Isaac shrugged. "Force of habit?"

Scott nodded thoughtfully, and said, "Ready to go home?"

"Yeah."

Scott clapped Isaac's shoulder, and then gestured behind them towards his bike, "I'll give you a ride."

Isaac thought he should probably say no, but having Scott with him made the prospect of facing Derek much easier to handle. "Okay."

The two teens started walking back, and Scott said, "Do you want me to text him and let him know we're headed to his place, or do you want to give him a call? He said you weren't answering your phone."

Isaac muttered, "Text him," while his inner voice called him a coward.

Scott got the text out of the way, and then the two walked in companionable silence back to the bike.

# # #

Derek was grumbling to himself about Peter and pacing the floor while his little sister, Cora, sat on the couch with a worried expression on her face. When Derek's phone finally buzzed, he whipped it out of his pocket, and sighed with relief when he read Scott's text. He turned to Cora, and said, "Scott found him in the cemetery. He's on his way home."

Cora took a deep breath, and said, "Good. That's good."

Derek looked at the time and said softly, "You should go back to bed."

She looked at the clock as well. "I'm just going to have to get up again in three hours."

"Three more hours of sleep will be good for you."

She rolled her eyes and said, "Has anyone ever told you that you're an overprotective mother hen?"

"Only you," he said dryly.

When she glared at him, he sat down next to her. "Look, Isaac and I need to have a talk, and it's probably going to be embarrassing for him, so I'd really appreciate it if you could go back to bed, and give him the illusion of privacy."

She gave him a confused scowl and said, "Wait a minute. Are you going to spank him?"

"What?" His eyes opened wide with shock. "No! Of course not! Why would you think that?"

"Well, you're his alpha, he's living here with you, he did something you don't approve of, and his parents are gone."

"That's all true, but why would that mean I'd spank him?"

"You sounded just like Mom before she spanked one of us when you said you needed to 'have a talk' with him."

Derek scoffed, "Yeah, when we were like eight, not sixteen."

"Oh." Cora slowly nodded, and said, "I guess I wasn't old enough to realize that when she died."

With sympathy, Derek leaned over and kissed the top of Cora's head before pulling her into a hug. "I wish you'd gotten to know her for longer."

"Me too."

"So if you're not spanking Isaac, why is the conversation going to be embarrassing?" Cora asked.

Derek let her go and shook his head. "That's between me and Isaac."

With a sigh she said, "Alright, fine."

"Go on. Up to bed."

She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and headed up the stairs to her room.

He chucked to himself at the thought of spanking Isaac. The kid had been through all kinds of trauma. He wasn't about to add to it.

A few minutes later he heard Scott's bike pull up. To his surprise, he heard two sets of footsteps on the stairs, and wondered if Isaac was afraid to face him alone.

There was a very tentative knock on the door before Isaac let himself and Scott into the loft.

Derek took one look at Isaac, and could fully appreciate his uncle's description. _The skittish one. He looks like he's about to have a panic attack._ Sometimes his beta was good at masking his fears, but tonight he was positively exuding fear and uncertainty.

With a sigh, Derek got up and walked over to the two teens. He raised his arms to pull Isaac into a hug, but the boy flinched and ducked away. Derek patiently put a hand on Isaac's arm, and pulled him into a hug anyway. The tense teen held his breath, and stood still.

"I'm glad you're home, and that you're both safe," Derek said.

Isaac let his breath out slowly, and allowed himself to lean into the older man just slightly.

Derek let go, and nodded his head towards the couch. "Both of you go sit down."

Once the two were sitting, Derek stood in front of them with his arms crossed and said, "Wanna explain what you thought you were doing tonight?"

Isaac remained silent and turned to Scott with pleading eyes. Scott took a deep breath and spent the next five minutes telling Derek how they'd all come up with the plan to trap the twins during school, and how they'd all met to carry out the plan at midnight.

The alpha glared at Scott. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Scott had the decency to blush and look away. "I thought you'd interfere, and make Isaac stay home."

"Did it ever occur to you that I might help?"

Both teens looked up at the older man with surprise.

Derek shook his head. "Look, Scott, if we have a mutual enemy, and you have a good plan to stop them, I'll be more likely to help you than to stop you."

Scott slowly nodded. "Okay."

"And if you have a bad idea, maybe I can help turn it into a good one, or talk you out of doing something stupid."

"Yeah, that would be good."

"So you'll tell me first if there's a next time, right?"

"Yes."

"Good." Satisfied with that answer, Derek tilted his head towards the door and said, "Alright then, go home. It's late."

Both Scott and Derek heard Isaac's heart rate go up. Scott gave his friend's shoulder a comforting squeeze before standing up to leave.

Once the door clicked shut behind Scott, Isaac's entire body tensed, and he kept his eyes focused on Derek's sock covered feet.

Derek sighed with some slight frustration. "Calm down."

Isaac winced and his heart rate increased.

Derek rolled his eyes, and went to sit next to his petrified beta. He put a gentle hand on Isaac's knee and said, "Try to calm down. I'm not your father. I'm not going to hit you, or lock you in a confined space."

"I know," Isaac said, but they could both tell he was lying.

"Going after the twins without telling me was the wrong thing to do. You get that, right?"

The teen's head jerked up and down once in a nod.

"I can't protect you if you do things behind my back."

A tiny involuntary whine escaped from Isaac's throat.

"So promise me you won't do it again."

"I promise." The words were little more than a whisper.

Derek patted his beta's knee. "Okay, I believe you, so we're done talking about that."

Isaac's eyes darted over to his once, and Derek knew the teen didn't believe him. He forged on anyway. "Now we need to talk about the bigger issue. You were afraid to come home tonight. I want to make sure that that never happens again. I'm your alpha. I should be the person that you try to _find_ when you have a problem, not the person you run from. So you need to tell me what went wrong tonight."

"I'm sorry," Isaac said with shame. "It won't happen again."

Derek shook his head. "I don't want an apology. I want an explanation. What was going through your head when you ran."

The beta shrugged.

Derek squeezed the knee under his hand and said, "Shrugging isn't an answer. I want the truth, and I want it now."

A panic induced stream of words came rushing out of the teen. "Nothing rational was going through my head when I ran. It was all emotions. I know you're not like my father, but this is the first time that I've actually done something wrong since you turned me, and…" He grimaced at his own upcoming confession, "…not knowing how you're gonna handle it terrifies me." With a look of apology for his alpha, Isaac said, "Logically I trust you completely. Emotionally… I'm still working on it."

With a nod of understanding, Derek moved his hand from the teen's knee, and went to put his arm around Isaac's shoulders, only to have the kid flinch and duck again. Frowning, Derek let his arm rest across the teen's shoulders anyway and said, "Thanks for the honesty. If there's a next time, do you think you'll be able to come home and face me, or do you think you'll run again?"

"I'll come home. I mean I would have come home tonight, even if Scott hadn't found me… It just might have taken a lot longer for me to get here."

"Well, that's a good first step. Next time, get here sooner, and instead of turning off your phone, answer it."

Isaac hung his head. "Yeah, okay," he muttered.

Derek gave the kid a half hug, and then took his arm off Isaac's shoulders. "It's late, and you have school tomorrow. Go get some sleep." Derek stood and gestured to the stairs.

Isaac stood as well and looked at the older man warily. "That's it? I get to go to bed now, and we're done talking about this?"

"I told you I'm not your father," Derek said with irritation.

"Yeah, I know, but…" Isaac frowned and didn't complete his sentence.

"But what? Spit it out." Derek crossed his arms, frustrated that the kid apparently couldn't let it go.

"I thought you'd do _something_. Maybe not what my dad would have done, but something." Isaac took an unconscious step backwards away from Derek, and kept his eyes on the floor.

"Something like what?"

"The sheriff grounded Stiles," Isaac said softly.

"You want me to ground you?" Derek asked.

Isaac shrugged.

"I don't know what I could ground you from. I need you to have your phone on you at all times, we don't have a television or game system, and you spend most of your free time with me already." 

Isaac nodded somewhat dejectedly. "Yeah, you're right." He took a deep breath kept his eyes on the floor and forced himself to be completely honest, "If you don't do something to punish me, it's going to take me weeks to stop expecting you to lash out at some point. I know that's not fair to you, but I can't help it. Maybe tomorrow morning we could do a quick training session, and you could be even more of a hard ass about it than usual. Then I could stop flinching every time you got close."

With that confession from his beta, Cora's mistaken thought about spanking didn't sound quite as ludicrous to Derek as it had before. He sighed, shook his head, and sat back down on the couch. "Training is _not_ punishment," the alpha said firmly. "Training is teaching you to survive. We're not confusing training with punishment."

The teen nodded in acceptance.

"But if you need me to punish you, I will. Come here."

Isaac took another step away. Visibly trembling, he said, "W… What are you going to do?"

"The same thing my mom, the alpha of our pack, used to do to me when I got into trouble. I'm going to spank you." He left out the fact that he'd been nine the last time it happened.

Isaac shook his head. "I was wrong. I don't need you to do anything."

"We both know that's not true, even if you want it to be."

Isaac's eyes darted around the loft looking for an escape.

Derek said gently, "You can't outrun me, so please don't try." His eyes flashed red as he repeated his previous instructions, "Come here, Isaac."

The teen shook his head no yet again, but his feet went forward anyway. This was going to hurt like a bitch, and it was going to suck balls, but at least with his healing factor he'd be fully recovered by tomorrow morning, and he wouldn't have the upsetting feeling of uncertainty rolling around in his stomach anymore. He swallowed hard, took a deep breath and said, "Where do you want me?"

The older man gripped Isaac's wrist and pulled slightly as he said, "Over my lap."

Isaac whimpered, and his entire face turned red with humiliation as he let Derek pull him down. He hadn't been across a lap for a whipping in at least five years.

Derek rested his left hand on Isaac's back in comfort instead of restraint, and then slapped his right palm onto the seat of Isaac's jeans without too much force. He figured he was spanking Isaac just a little harder than his mother had spanked him when he was nine. That had been perfectly sufficient to make him regret what he'd done, and he thought it would be sufficient to get Isaac past his fears, and deter him from future bad behavior.

The teen's whole body jerked automatically at the first smack, but once his brain had a chance to process the physical effect of the impact, he frowned with confusion, and held his breath waiting for it to really start.

Derek carefully laid down four more spanks at a deliberately slow pace and then paused to say sternly, "Don't leave the loft in the middle of the night without telling me where you're going."

Isaac was completely confused by the lack of serious force behind the slaps. Sure, it stung unpleasantly when each smack landed, but it didn't _hurt_. At least not the way a snapped bone or a whipped back hurt.

Derek gave him five more smacks, and then paused to say, "Don't confront our enemies without telling me what your plans are."

He opened his mouth to respond, but then second guessed himself and bit his lip to keep from saying anything. Instead he dipped his head down once in a slight nod, still unsure about answering.

Derek gave him three more slaps. "Don't turn your phone off when I'm trying to call you."

"O… Okay." The teen whispered cautiously.

Derek patted Isaac's back in approval, and then swatted his rear end three more times. "Don't go hide in the cemetery when you're supposed to be coming home."

"I… I won't. I'm sorry."

Derek patted Isaac's back again, and said, "Alright, it's done." He put a hand on Isaac's arm to help guide him into a sitting position next to him on the couch.

"Done?" Isaac asked as he was being moved.

The older man grasped Isaac's chin in his fingers to force eye contact with the surprised teen. "Yes, done. You've been punished, and I forgive you, so now you can stop waiting for me to lash out at you, because it's over." He carefully watched the teen's expression. The kid's eyebrows drew together in confusion, and possibly disbelief.

"But that… that wasn't a real punishment. I…"

"Yes," Derek said firmly, "it was a real punishment, it just wasn't the abuse you're used to. I'm your alpha, I'm the responsible adult in your life, and I decide what kind of punishment you deserve. Not you. If you'd like to continue to argue about it, I'm going to have you write lines. I'm thinking 'I will not argue with my alpha' a hundred times."

Isaac's eyes opened wide, and he shook his head.

"Good," Derek said. He wrapped his arm around Isaac's shoulders and pulled the boy into a tight hug. "I'm glad you're seeing things my way." He held on until the kid's breathing and heart rate went back to normal. Then he let the teen out of the embrace, stood, and pulled Isaac up with him. "Now you're going to go to bed, and tomorrow things will be back to normal between us. Okay?"

"Okay."

Derek gave the kid a nudge towards the stairs and said, "See you in the morning."

"Night," Isaac said as he walked to the stairs.

Once Isaac got to his room, he kicked off his shoes, left his jeans and tee-shirt in a heap on the floor, and flopped down onto his bed. He reached a hand back to put on his rear end, even though any lingering sting had faded seconds after the spanking had stopped thanks to his werewolf healing. He thought he probably should be embarrassed and a little pissed by that token punishment.

He rolled over onto his back, pulled his covers up, and put both his hands behind his head as he stared at the ceiling. A few seconds later as he was drifting off to sleep, he'd decided it didn't matter how he _should_ feel about it, the only thing that mattered was how he did feel, and that was easy to figure out. He was grateful.

The End


End file.
